asimplechord (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
asimplechord) wrote2007-03-21 12:10 am
asimplechord) wrote2007-03-21 12:10 am
Drabblet: The trick is to keep breathing (Fred/George, PG-13)
Sorry it's been so long. This has been written for ages, and I meant to expand on it, but I think that for this particular prompt, leaving it where it is works. Plus, given my snail-like writing pace right now, if I wait it'll never get posted.
Title: The trick is to keep breathing
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: incest implied, angst
Prompt set: 50.4
Prompt: #19, quitting
Word count: 401
A/N: This directly follows Parental advice and is part of the same story arc in my![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
100quills universe. (The prompt grid is here.)
The hallway outside the library was empty. Even if they hadn't been alone, Fred wasn't certain he would have been able to release his grip on George's hand. For the moment, it was the only thing that kept his temper anchored and his words swallowed. And he couldn't speak, not yet; he was afraid of what he would say, that he would yell loud enough to cause a scene, loud enough to wake Mrs. Black's portrait. Instead he squeezed George's hand harder and headed up the staircase.
It was nobody's business but their own, his and George's relationship. Fred wasn't sure what his dad suspected or what evidence he'd seen to confirm his suspicions, but whatever it was, no one else had seen. No one else knew, except maybe Lee. Not that they had told him or anything; Lee just… knew.
Nothing their father had said tonight had been news to Fred. Hadn't he spent weeks wrestling with the thought of those issues? He'd considered family disapproval along with the other repercussions of pursuing a less than fraternal relationship with his twin. Maybe he wasn't the most profound thinker in the world, and it was true they were young to be making serious life decisions, but in the same way that Fred knew that he and George were meant to be pranksters pursuing their joke shop, he had finally realized that they were also two halves of a whole. No amount of lecture from parents would change that.
The trip to their room was both the longest and shortest walk he'd ever experienced. The door had barely closed behind them when Fred released his grip on George's hand, almost flinging it away as he threw himself on his bed. Before he could say anything, George had drawn his wand and was casting an Imperturbable Charm on the door. Once that was done, the length of willow (ten inches, Fwooper feather core, only a shade lighter than Fred's wand, which currently rested in his pocket) clattered to the top of the nightstand between their identical beds, and George slumped next to Fred. For all of his protests in the study, George seemed strangely subdued now.
This did not bode well.
"Maybe he's right."
That was not what Fred was expecting George to say, and he was disappointed. He took a calming breath before he responded.
"Right about what?" There, that was a reasonable tone, not the outraged shout that wanted free.
"Maybe we shouldn't be doing this now. Not here. What if one of the Order saw us? Or Moody, with that magical eye?"
Oh. Well, that last was a valid point. But the rest sounded disturbingly like a surrender to Fred.
"So, we don't mess around when we're here?" Inconvenient, but understandable. Fred could go along with that. But George was still not meeting his eyes.
"Yeah, but…" George's reply was hesitant. "Maybe not when we're at school, either."
Title: The trick is to keep breathing
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: incest implied, angst
Prompt set: 50.4
Prompt: #19, quitting
Word count: 401
A/N: This directly follows Parental advice and is part of the same story arc in my
100quills universe. (The prompt grid is here.)The hallway outside the library was empty. Even if they hadn't been alone, Fred wasn't certain he would have been able to release his grip on George's hand. For the moment, it was the only thing that kept his temper anchored and his words swallowed. And he couldn't speak, not yet; he was afraid of what he would say, that he would yell loud enough to cause a scene, loud enough to wake Mrs. Black's portrait. Instead he squeezed George's hand harder and headed up the staircase.
It was nobody's business but their own, his and George's relationship. Fred wasn't sure what his dad suspected or what evidence he'd seen to confirm his suspicions, but whatever it was, no one else had seen. No one else knew, except maybe Lee. Not that they had told him or anything; Lee just… knew.
Nothing their father had said tonight had been news to Fred. Hadn't he spent weeks wrestling with the thought of those issues? He'd considered family disapproval along with the other repercussions of pursuing a less than fraternal relationship with his twin. Maybe he wasn't the most profound thinker in the world, and it was true they were young to be making serious life decisions, but in the same way that Fred knew that he and George were meant to be pranksters pursuing their joke shop, he had finally realized that they were also two halves of a whole. No amount of lecture from parents would change that.
The trip to their room was both the longest and shortest walk he'd ever experienced. The door had barely closed behind them when Fred released his grip on George's hand, almost flinging it away as he threw himself on his bed. Before he could say anything, George had drawn his wand and was casting an Imperturbable Charm on the door. Once that was done, the length of willow (ten inches, Fwooper feather core, only a shade lighter than Fred's wand, which currently rested in his pocket) clattered to the top of the nightstand between their identical beds, and George slumped next to Fred. For all of his protests in the study, George seemed strangely subdued now.
This did not bode well.
"Maybe he's right."
That was not what Fred was expecting George to say, and he was disappointed. He took a calming breath before he responded.
"Right about what?" There, that was a reasonable tone, not the outraged shout that wanted free.
"Maybe we shouldn't be doing this now. Not here. What if one of the Order saw us? Or Moody, with that magical eye?"
Oh. Well, that last was a valid point. But the rest sounded disturbingly like a surrender to Fred.
"So, we don't mess around when we're here?" Inconvenient, but understandable. Fred could go along with that. But George was still not meeting his eyes.
"Yeah, but…" George's reply was hesitant. "Maybe not when we're at school, either."